Years ago, when I was about 25, I was a foster parent. Over a four year period, my wife and I had four different kids. When they came to us they were Preschool, Kindergarten, High School Freshman and High School Sophomore. At one point, they were all with us in a 940 sq. ft. house. I have known many other foster families. One had 94 different kids. One woman had 12, all of which she later adopted. I asked her what led her to adopt them. Her response was that when she looked at them, she “saw a new world”. Our scripture tells us about Saul, who was a Jewish bounty hunter, chasing and breathing downthe necks of people who were part of what they called “the way” so they could be arrested and taken back to Jerusalem and put to death. “The way” was a powerful metaphor for these early followers of Christ. Instead of being identifiedby a set of beliefs, these faithful communities were known by their character in the world. The Christian faith was and is a way of life that moves us back into a new and different relationship with God. A way that compelled individuals, families and communities to leave the safe conditions of home and church to walk on the road that God had set before them. The “way”, suggests that faith is a living, active process. Jesus asked Saul why he has sought to persecute HIM. When Saul afflicted the faithful, he actually persecuted Jesus himself. Whenever Christians are harassed and abused, Jesus is most deeply present with the oppressed. That too is a distinctive characteristic of “the way” of Jesus. When we are thrown under the bus, Jesus crawls under there with us. Our scripture says that Saul was blinded by the light of God’s love in Jesus to the point that he had to be led around and that he ate and drank nothing for four days. God seems to work in such unusual ways sometimes. Instead of continuing to dictate instructions from the clouds, Jesus called upon a follower in the city named Ananias. Naturally, Ananias resisted the instructions out of fear of getting too close to Saul and ending up in chains, heading to Jerusalem. Even though they were 150 miles from Jerusalem, they had heard of the reign of terror that Saul had created. Now, he was here, with the legal right to capture all the followers of Jesus that he could. Even though God spoke to Ananias and told him that he was changing Saul’s life and name and that as Paul, he would be God’s personal representative to the non Jews and even though Saul was able to see again, the people were not sure that they could trust Paul. “Isn’t he the one that wracked havoc in Jerusalem? Didn't he come here to do the same thing, to arrest us and drag us off? Had he changed that much” they asked. Paul didn't just stop persecuting Christians, but went everywhere telling the story of Jesus and leading thousands to faith in God’s love through Jesus. Paul’s conversion was based on the obedience of both Saul and Ananias. Jesus commanded them to trust each other during this process of conversion. We too need to reach out and embrace each other in spite of our ethnic, cultural, social, and theological differences. He offered a new world. Perhaps if we can share a strong enough vision of that new world it will lead us to a very different live in the present world. One day I went to see a pastor friend a day or two after they had moved into their new appointment. In the conversation he said that he was “settling in”, that he was adapting to the status quo and that he was adjusting. I’ve mentioned before how you cook a frog. If you put it into hot water, the frog will jump out, but if you start with lukewarm water and warm the water a bit at a time, the frog will adapt and die. Christians are people who, because we know how the story ends, and the final purposes of God, do not “settle in”. We keep up a “holy restlessness”. We keep moving; keep standing on tiptoes, expectant, because we have been offered a vision of what God is trying to do in our world. Both in times of peace and prosperity and times when the world has knocked everything out of us, we declare ourselves to be God’s people, unshakable in the confidence that nothing can knock us from the place of peace and confidence where we are. We are on the other side of Easter. The Lilies are gone, but not our hope. The holy and living God is at work in our lives, in the joys and in the times of brokenness as well as in the “in between” times. Often, it is in retrospect that we realize that it was God that was holding us up and keeping us from drowning. We’ve all been there. We’re about to go down for the third time, but we find the strength and courage and direction to try again and again and to follow God’s plan and purpose. I think back over the time in life when I thought that I had cried all the tears that a person could make, and then I cried 1,000 more. God never sent a bunch of angels to swoop in and make things better. God didn’t replace the pain with rainbow and unicorns, but God did put some people in my life who shared God’s love and, joy came in the morning. That’s how it has been for me, when I am in over my head and about to lose my mind, my spirit and my way, I feel God’s loving arms, drawing me up from the deep, dark pit in which I had found myself. There have been times when my future seems fearful and uncertain and yet I experienced God’s power to change my heart and my life and I knew that God was in control as I tried confidently to follow Jesus, grieving my losses, even as I tried to stay focused on the bright future that I knew was ahead. When we believe the story of what God can do in people, especially because we have seen it in our lives, then we can tell that story to others and they will believe it and come to faith for themselves. This does not exempt us from problems in our lives, but we know that life is a series of highs and lows and that being in a valley means that we are approaching a mountaintop. Along the way, we will have to do hard things. We may be skeptical like Ananias. The person that we fear may become the one that God calls us to reach out and touch and embrace as a brother or sister. They might even be someone that we currently see as being beyond God’s redemption. I’ve known a lot of different people over the years. Some have been saints and some have beensinners and most were a complex mix of the two. No matter who or what they were, they touched the lives of others, they loved and were loved and they showed the whole world just what they believed through their words and actions. Some of them have made some pretty severe mistakes in their lives and have struggled with addictions. Some have never had a job. Some have disappointed people they loved and who loved them. We are the church and we do not focus on people’s mistakes, but rather, we focus on the work of the God who loves people, the God who created people and is with us every moment of our lives. I believe that God has a special place in God's heart for people like me who goof up a lot. And the good news is that God promised us that God would never stop seeking those who cause themselves to be separated from God. What do we say to those people that we know that have come to a dead end in their lives and see no hope? I tell them that their weeping may last for the day, but that joy “will come in the morning”. I tell them a story about a time when I was in a similar situation and knew that I was not smart enough, or creative enough, or sly enough to solve my problem and I introduce them to my good friend Jesus and to the new world and new life that he offers them.

Leave a Reply.

Pastor Steve Anderson

Archives

Categories

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-89